USD beats Aztecs in Snapdragon Stadium soccer game

There are two ways to handle a one-goal lead in soccer as the game stretches into its final, frenetic minutes.

One is to put multiple players behind the ball, clog the penalty box and boot any sort of danger into the next galaxy.

The other is what the University of San Diego men did Monday night against San Diego State in the Aztecs’ annual game at Snapdragon Stadium: Keep attacking.

All that possession and purpose resulted in a second goal in the 77th minute by Steven Ramirez that provided insurance for a 2-1 victory and extended their unbeaten streak against their crosstown rivals to four.

It was the sixth unanswered USD goal in the series, dating to a 1-1 tie at Snapdragon in 2023 and a 3-0 win at Torero Stadium last season, before the SDSU forward Rommee Jaridly finally found the net in the 86th minute to render an otherwise dominant performance a bit more interesting.

The Toreros, ranked No. 10 nationally in the preseason coaches’ poll, improved to 2-1-1 after a brutal opening schedule, with all four on the road and the first three against ranked opposition.

“I’m happy where we’re at after four games,” said coach Brian Quinn, who now has the next five games at home. “But if we want to get back to the tournament, we have to be consistent. We have really good players, but that doesn’t win you games. There has to be that consistency every single game and not rely on one or two players.

“After the fast start, I wish we could have sustained that for another 15 or 20 minutes and put them on the back foot. We didn’t do that. We were playing OK, but we kind of let them back in the game.”

With nearly the entire team returning from last season’s 15-3-2 run to the Sweet 16 and SDSU needing to replace five starters, you’d expect the Toreros to be the more cohesive unit this early in the campaign. And they were, effortlessly knocking the ball around the midfield while searching for cracks in the Aztecs’ back line.

Cesar Bahena, he of eight goals last season, got his first of 2025 while fans were still settling into their seats. SDSU momentarily thought it had equalized in the 23rd minute, when USD goalkeeper Adam Salama bobbled a cross that was poked into the net, only for referee Mark Verso to wave it off. Verso doubled-checked on a sideline replay tablet, which showed an Aztecs player bumping into Salama as he caught the ball.

Jaridly’s goal ended a 212-minute scoreless streak against their rivals.

“Our guys, I saw a look in their eyes I haven’t seen,” Aztecs coach Ryan Hopkins said. “I don’t know if the moment was too big, but we didn’t start well. I didn’t give a lot of tactics in the locker room (at halftime). I might have thrown a pen against the whiteboard. I just felt like they needed to wake up.

“But they responded, and that was what we were looking for from this group. We can play soccer. We can do a lot of different things. I don’t know if all the time they have that intensity and that grit and that will to win, and that’s what San Diego, in my opinion, has in spades. That’s why they’ve been so successful.”

The announced crowd of 3,069 is the third-largest in SDSU history, trailing only the last two games at Snapdragon that drew a few hundred more.

“Great college soccer game,” Hopkins said. “Both teams battled. That feels like an NCAA Tournament-type of game. Two really good teams that put on a great show before another big crowd at Snapdragon Stadium. A few plays make all the difference in these big games, and they made a couple more plays than us.”